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Spring break on the Kennebec
By KEITH EDWARDS
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel Tuesday, March 27, 2007

U.S. Coast Guard ice breakers sliced and crushed their way up the Kennebec River on Monday, part of efforts to prevent flooding caused by ice jams.

Recent warm weather has already started wearing down winter's icy grip on the Kennebec, so Coast Guard officials anticipate their ice breakers' stay on the river will be brief.

Officials think the ice breakers and a sunny short-term forecast will conspire to create a low potential for ice-related flooding on the Kennebec this spring.

The ice was relatively soft and thin Monday, Coast Guard officials said -- so much so, they decided the biggest ice breaker in a group of four working the river wasn't needed.

The 140-foot, 662- ton Thunder Bay was called off the job Monday, according to Coast Guard Lt. Connie Braesch, because the bigger ship wasn't needed to help the trio of 65-foot ice-breaking cutters Shackle, Bridle and Tackle that worked the river. Those ships were expected to continue breaking up ice north of the Richmond- Dresden Bridge today before departing.

Gregory Stewart, supervisory hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Augusta, said Monday the potential for flooding was at "normal" levels, and could improve significantly by the end of the week if weather forecasts prove accurate.

He said the weather forecast predicts sunny days and colder nights.

That, Stewart said, would be perfect "ice-mitigation weather," in which the sun causes ice to melt from above as the water continues to deteriorate it from below. Below-freezing temperatures at night prevent the ice from breaking free in large, jam-prone chunks.

"You want the ice to rot in place until it turns into nothing," Stewart said. "The potential for ice jams and flooding will go down considerably by the end of the week if the forecast goes as it says. With this forecast, we shouldn't see any over- bank flooding."

The Coast Guard works closely with the Maine Emergency Management Agency to break up ice as part of annual flood prevention efforts.

Stewart said the state began asking the Coast Guard for help breaking up ice after Edwards Dam was removed from the river in Augusta in 1999. Before then, Stewart said, the dam helped prevent large ice chunks from flowing downstream intact.

Now that Edwards Dam is gone, larger volumes of ice chunks are possible on the river, with an accompanying larger chance of choking ice jams and the flooding they can cause.

The ice breakers help by breaking ice up to Gardiner, thus freeing up more space on the river for ice that may flow downriver from points north.

Of prime concern is the potential for ice jams at the Richmond-Dresden Bridge, where a major ice jam in 1936 caused flooding and actually removed and destroyed large sections of the bridge.

"The Richmond-Dresden Bridge is the historical choke point for ice jams," Stewart said.

Sunday is the 20th anniversary of the major flood in 1987 that inundated portions of Augusta, Hallowell and Gardiner with flood waters that caused extensive damage.

Keith Edwards -- 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com


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